Modern-day Circuit Rider

Recently, as I was musing about the ministry God has entrusted to me and my wife in the nursing homes, I was reminded of the old-time 'circuit riders' who traveled extensively throughout the frontier of early America, taking the Gospel to those without a pastor. I began to do some reading and found great similarity between our missionary work and the efforts of these brave men of God.

A circuit rider was a pastor, usually a Methodist or Baptist, assigned to travel among several rural churches to provide services for residents. Circuit riders were real and official pastors, not itinerant freelance preachers. They had a simple plan of evangelism: they went where the people lived, and they ministered to their needs. 

Let me share some fascinating history of the 'circuit rider'. The material is not original with me. I am indebted to John Wigger of St. Olaf College in Minnesota for his article, "Holy, 'Knock-Em-Down' Preachers!", from which I have excerpted the following:

"Early circuit riders were a different kind of clergy than had ever been seen in America, serving a rapidly expanding and spiritually hungry nation. They pursued their calling with remarkable zeal, forever changing the style and tone of American religion.

What was a circuit rider’s life like? And what was their collective impact?

In 1795, 95 percent of Americans lived in places with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants; by 1830 this proportion was still 91 percent. Itinerant ministry provided preaching...and church structure to communities that would not otherwise have been able to attract or afford a minister. The typical circuit rider was a young, single man who hailed from an artisan background, who himself had already moved several times from one village or town to the next, but whose life had been abruptly transformed by a dramatic conversion experience. Before turning to preaching, Bishop Francis Asbury (Methodism’s most influential early leader) had been a blacksmith, and most of the other preachers had been carpenters, shoemakers, hatters, tanners, millers, shopkeepers, school teachers, sailors, and so on.

A typical...itinerant was responsible for a predominantly rural circuit, 200 to 500 miles in circumference. He was expected to complete this circuit every two to six weeks, with the standard being a four weeks’ circuit. His partner, if he had one, usually did not travel with him, but either followed or preceded him on the circuit. Hence, on a four weeks’ circuit, the people could expect preaching about every two weeks, but only rarely from a circuit rider on a Sunday. On rural circuits, the itinerants made preaching appointments for nearly every day of the week, sometimes both morning and evening, with only a few days per month allotted for rest, reflection, and letter writing.

The early circuit riders preached and traveled at a grueling pace. John Brooks, for example, labored so intensely during his first three years in the itinerancy that he reported, “I lost my health and broke a noble constitution.” During one tempestuous revival, Brooks lay “sick in bed,” but the people “literally forced me out, and made me preach.”

In 1799, itinerant Billy Hibbard rode the Cambridge, New York, circuit, a 500-mile, four-week circuit with up to 63 preaching appointments, in addition to the responsibility of meeting the classes. In one year on the Flanders, New Jersey, circuit, Thomas Smith estimated he traveled 4,200 miles, preached 324 times, exhorted 64 times, and met classes 287 times.

During his 45-year career, Asbury, who never married, rode more than a quarter of a million miles on horseback and crossed the Allegheny Mountains some 60 times. He visited nearly every state once a year. One biographer estimates that Asbury stayed in 10,000 households and preached 17,000 sermons."

How very much like our work of traveling on a 6 day a week rotating schedule, throughout northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio, conducting services in various nursing homes to people who, for the most part, have no pastor. We have learned over the years that many times when an elderly person becomes needful of nursing home care, their grown children move mom or dad closer to them, to a facility nearby where they can visit them regularly. Unfortunately, in doing this they uproot the loved one from familiar surroundings, including their home church and pastor. As a result, they have no one to take care of their spiritual needs. Of course, this is where our ministry comes in as we bring Bible studies, church services, heart-stirring music, and counseling to the resident.

So, I guess our work among the nursing homes in two states qualifies us as a 21st century "circuit riding" ministry! Hey....where did I park my horse?

Missionary Pastor

Norm Aabye

Jude 22